Posts Tagged ‘teacher’
Good Days and Bad Days
Have you noticed what an emotional business this is?
There hasn’t been a post for the last 48 hours because the author has been on an emotional roller coaster and really not fit for publication.
Let me explain: In my company we are now at the end of a 90 day promotion. All we had to do was introduce 12 members to the club (just one a week) and we would receive a £200 bonus. Small beer in monetary terms but vitally important if we are to demonstrate to our teams that it can be done – after all I did one a week for a year to get on the company cruise: Of course it can be done.
And I had done it this time. In fact I had 14 people signed up and the promise of one more who said she would definitely do it online by midnight – enough of a safety margin, I decided.
This way why I set off with a light heart on Monday for a leadership development training session to learn how to grow my business faster. These sessions have gone through a bit of a transformation lately as new people have blasted their way through the pay plan with ideas and systems which have quite simply “blown this business apart”. For five hours I sat there thinking: “Why don’t I do that?”
I hit the road back at the end of it convinced I was going to take my business to a new level.
Then several things happened at once: A lorry turned sideways on the A14 and fell over. Then two of my 14 new members cancelled – and, as I was to discover later, the friend who had promised to sign up online had found something more important to do. Worst of all, I still had a mass of emails to write, the dog to walk, I needed to eat or faint … and I really should have written the blog.
Except there wasn’t much to write. I had given out some of the piggies and a couple of Independence newspapers but the plan had been that the bulk of them would be shifted on the way home – instead of which I spent most of the time motionless, sending texts to builders vans in the next lane. At 1.30 in the morning, I considered going out to stuff things through letterboxes but decided that (a) I was just too tired and (b) I would probably get arrested.
So I left it until today: I marked up my business development plan with noughts in the relevant boxes and told myself I would do better.
And this I did. First I went into Woodbridge for an appointment with another solicitor (I seem to specialise in solicitors) who wanted to sign up as quickly as possible – we did it in 15 minutes complete with a discussion about what he was going to say about the company when he brings us up at the partners meeting. Next I shifted the rest of yesterday’s piggies, Independence newspapers and DVDs which took another 20 minutes and incidentally put a couple of window cleaners onto the prospect list.
Then it was home in time for the piano tuner (the new one since I didn’t see the point in keeping on the old one if he didn’t want to support my business the way I was supporting his). This one took a DVD for his wife who’s a teacher and really would rather not be.
By the time I really got started on the day’s activity it was three O’clock in the afternooon. But on the other hand, I was in Ipswich. I shifted all 49 cards, ffive DVDs and 10 Independences in an hour. At least half the piggies disappeared at the door to the shopping precinct in about five minutes flat.
That left me with one DVD and just one piggy.
It’s funny when you’re down to one. The last one seems to be gold-plated. You don’t feel like giving it to just anyone.
I scanned the crowd, dismissing one person after another as too old, too young, too scruffy…
And then I saw a Sikh. Now this may be a huge and possibly racist generalisation but has anyone ever met a lazy Sikh? I haven’t. I gave him a card. I said: “It’s all about money. .It’s absolutely brilliant.”
He looked.
I went on: “Are you interested in money?”
“Always interested in money.”
“Well I can’t tell you about it here. I could give you some more information or if you’ve got ten minutes, I could buy you a coffee and show it to you now.”
He said he didn’t mind so we went to Starbucks and had two gingerbread lattes with cream. You have to drink them with a spoon…
And there I practised what we had learned on the leadership development course. I got him to tell me awhat he wanted while I sat and nodded, my tongue firmly between my teeth. What he wanted was Financial Freedom. At the moment he was chained to his convenience store. He hadn’t been back to India for three years. He couldn’t see any end to it. When he looked at the future he saw himself working until he died.
I showed him how the money worked and asked him what difference that would make to his life. I could hardly catch his reply. It was as if I had packed all the answers to all his problems into a small cardboard box and casually pushed it across the table between the empty latte mugs.
It would be convenient to end this story by saying that he signed up there and then. However not a lot of people do get out their credit card for total strangers who accost them in the street. But will he watch the DVD? Will he come to the opportunity meeting on Thursday.
We shall see.